1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic ticket providing system and its method, an electronic ticket vending apparatus, a mobile telephone, and an operation program for use with them. In particular, the present invention relates to an electronic ticket providing system adapted to distribute electronic tickets to user's mobile telephone over a communications network.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electronic ticket system in which an IC card is used instead of a paper ticket when the ticket information is actually used has been proposed (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-113238, and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-351623). In this system, the ticket information about admission and seat reservation for various events such as a concert, a play, etc., a boarding pass, a transportation ticket, etc. for transportation, etc. is electronically obtained on the IC card using a mobile telephone from the server of a ticket issuing center over a communications network. There is also a system proposed for storing ticket information on internal memory of a mobile telephone without an IC card (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-189933).
In the method for storing electronic ticket information on an IC card, it is possible to satisfy the security requirements against the tampering of data, copy of data, etc. However, if an electronic ticket is a ticket of an event, it is difficult to obtain various related information such as the traffic information to the event hall, the notification of related events, the refund information in case of cancel of the event, etc.
In the method for storing electronic ticket information on an IC card, it is possible to satisfy the security requirements against the tampering of data, copy of data, etc. However, if an electronic ticket is a ticket of an event, it is difficult to obtain various related information such as the traffic information to the event hall, the notification of related events, the refund information in case of cancelation of the event, etc.
Furthermore, there may be also a method for storing various related information together with electronic ticket information on an IC card. However, this method also has a disadvantage that the information cannot be checked unless an IC card and an IC card reader/writer are incorporated together.